Minerals investment company the SSC Group says it will be up to the creditors and affected persons to ultimately decide the way forward for the Lily and Barbrook mines, and not the current owner, Vantage Goldfields.
This follows after Vantage CEO Mike McChesney’s recent comments that neither of the mines are for sale and that their reopening would be undertaken by Vantage.
SSC Group CEO Fred Arendse has called for Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to intervene in the matter.
SSC Group notes that it is one of the biggest creditors of both Vantage and Barbrook mines and forms part of the bidder that has been at the forefront of trying to reopening the mines, "prior to business rescue practitioners (BRPs) Rob Devereux and Daniel Terblanche, reneging on their undertaking to publish the detailed and fully funded amended business rescue plans on January 20".
Further, he notes, “Vantage has yet to produce any proof of funding demonstrating their ability to pay any of the creditors or mine employees, for that matter".
SSC says the Vantage proposal provides no detail on any feasible and implementable plans to reopen the mines or on how it proposes to retrieve the container in which three mineworkers were buried when a part of the mine collapsed in 2016.
SSC questions how the BRPs can accept the Vantage proposal “with no detail on how the mines will be reopened”, on the retrieval of the container, or the funding required.